TIWA (Taiwan International Workers' Association)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1) Origin

 

　　Chairman Chen Suxiang found the Taiwan International Labor Association on October 30, 1999. In the early days, TIWA was an association of labor movements. Later, many labor unions moved to the association to seek life or work assistance. This labor association will provide relevant information about the supplementary law, employment service act, and accommodation on sunday.

 

          In addition, in order to eliminate the prejudice and stereotypes of foreign migrants on racsism, and gender discrimination. This organization actively promotes foreign labor bands and cultural activities, so that the public can understand and respect the cultural differences  and this further improves understanding of different social classes and implementation of equal treatment.

 

(2) Core Beliefs

 

　　The Taiwan International Worker Association, which has been established for nearly 20 years, is the driving force behind many labor movements and parades, helping to develop the exchange of local labor and migration experience, helping them integrate into society, actively developing autonomous organizations, and fighting for more rights for migrants. At the same time, I also study the laws and regulations related to migration, such as the Laojie Law, the supplementary law, and accommodation, and provide advice on Sunday.

In addition, in order to eliminate prejudice and stereotypes about their race, class, and gender in the society, foreign bands and cultural activities are also actively promoted, so that the public can understand and respect cultural differences through different methods, and improve society's understanding of lower classes And implement equal treatment.

 

(3) Moltivation

 

　　In Taiwan, around 600,000 migrant workers made tremendous contributions in different sectors of Taiwan’s economy, but many of their work rights were unfairly taken away as the results of the government’s dated policies and rampant social prejudice. One example is the demand of law that they need to leave the country and pay the costly agency fee again every three years.

 

　　In addition, the compulsory law of the country deprives their participation in social campaigns and the policy making process, forcing them to lose the awareness of labor rights and to yield under the oppression of unfair law and work agency. They are in a disadvantaged position which makes obtaining rights more difficult. This is why TIWA have been working hard to voice for them through demonstrations and campaigns. In the meantime, it is also working for the purpose of promoting the communication and interaction of foreign laborers in Taiwan by and setting up self-governing laborer councils such as KASAPI and IPIT.

 

(4) Service Target

 

　　The migrant worker issue has been chronically neglected in Taiwan. It is TIWA’s objective to attract more social attention to this issue through various channels, to make more people understand the unfair condition of these foreign worker’s work so that a better system with more concerns about justice and fairness can be created in the future.

 

(5) Clientele

 

　　Since October 1999, in order to advocate the rights of foreign workers, the Taiwan International Labor Association has regularly published news on migration in the "See" column on the official website, mostly for the first-hand experience of many Southeast Asian migrants who have suffered social discrimination in Taiwan. Can use online articles to voice unfair and exploited migrants, and question the interests of Taiwan's social system and cheap labor. In addition to letting more people understand the experience of migrating, TIWA also actively advocates migrating to develop autonomous organizations, initiate joint signing, and fight for rights.

 

　　Since its inception, TIWA has been engaged in case services. Knowing the incompleteness of Taiwan's policies, the language of migration, and insufficient resources, etc., have prevented migrants from directly fighting for their  rights. Therefore, through case services, including free charge Counseling and grievance services, many exploited migrants become familiarized with TIWA. At the same time ,TIWA can understand the dilemma of migrant workers in Taiwan, organize migrant workers, carry out advocacy activities, and protect their rights.

 

　　  In the course of a lot of casework, during the discussion with migrant workers, TIWA is dedicated in summarizing  the unreasonable policies, and to discuss how to make the current policy more fair. After many collaborations, TIWA also believes that only seriousness of social oppression can strengthen the policy. Instead of accepting assistance, immigrants should speak for themself and indeed respond to unfair policies and work together to create a  fair society.

 

　　 Living under long-term policy control and social prejudice, many migrant workers lost their self-awareness and were forced to succumb to the current situation, making it more difficult for the organization to fight for their rights. Therefore, TIWA established the “Kasapi” in 2003.  In addition, they established the" Indonesia Labor Union in Taiwan (IPIT) "in 2007 to promote labor movement and to allow Taiwan society and migrant workers to have more interaction.

 

　　 In 2003, because of the unfortunate incident of Liu Xia, one of a TIWA's organization of service migration, in order to protect the labor rights, set up PAHSA (Promoting Alince for Household Service Act) and drafted the "Housework Service Law" in the same year .This was introduced into the Legislative Yuan in 2004.

 

　　 In 2007, PASHSA changed its name to MENT (Migrants Enpowerment Network in Taiwan), officially expanding the level of joint efforts and initiatives to all migrations.

 

-The members of MENT are：

 

1. Migrant Workers' Concern Desk（MWCD）

2.Caritas Internationalis (Taiwan)

3. Scalabrini International Migration Network—Taiwan（Scalabrini-taiwan）

4. Vietnam Migrant Workers Office（VMWBO）

5.  Hope Workers’ Center（HWC）

6.  Hsinchu Diocese Migrants and Immigrants Service Center（HMISC）

7. Center For Migrants’ Concerns-Central Taiwan（CMC-CT）

8. Stella Maris International Service Center（Stella）

9. The Presbyterian Church In  Taiwan Labour Concern Center（Lcc）

10.Taiwan International Migrants Mission（TIMM）

11.Columban JPIC office

 

 

 

(6) Members

 

　　Currently, Chen Suxiang, Gu Yuling, Wu Jingru, Chen Xiulian, Xu Jiayi, and consultant Gong Youqian are the main leaders of TIWA. The TIWA Support Association was established in 2007, recruiting 100 members, and donating NT500 per month to support them.

 

(7) Individualism

 

　　TIWA assists migrant workers to participate in various demonstrations and campaigns to strive for their own labor rights.“Autumn Fight” organized by the Workers’ Legislative Action Committee is a good example. One feature of TIWA is the policy of initiatives. Through organizing migrant workers to walk on the street to protest against the unfairness of various policies, they help migrant workers to speak out for themselves. They want to remind the government it is time to make some changes on the policies, to construct a fair system for the migrant workers.

 

　　TIWA also provides case services, free consultation, and grievance services, to directly solve many problems for foreign labor workers. After obtaining the authorization of the Ministry of Labor in 2008, TIWA set up shelters to provide accomodation to those who don’t have places for residence during the case services. Since 2003, TIWA has held large-scaled  demonstrations  every 2 years, protesting against the problems of exorbitant agency fees, long working hours with low pay, and lack of days off.

 

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Protest which leads by the TIWA association